Their only son, Richard Junior, died in 1980 when he was only 24 from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound.

He shot himself in the head when inspecting a sawed-off shotgun.

That model was eventually taken off the market due to its ‘hair trigger’.

Mary Tyler Moore’s second marriage was to a CBS excutive – Grant Tinker

Tinker would go on to become the chairman of NBC.

In 1970, Moore and Tinker formed a production company – MTM Enterprises which not only created but only produced the hugely successful Mary Tyler Moore Show.

The company also had a record label – MTM Records.

They also produced quite a range of television sitcoms and dramas including Lou Grant, Phyllis, The Texas Wheelers, St. Elsewhere, Rhoda, Friends and Lovers, The Newhart Show, Hill Street Blues, WKRP in Cincinnati and The White Shadow.

The MTM logo was tribute to that of Metro Goldwyn Mayer but it featured Mary’s cat instead of a lion.

The company was sold to Television South in 1988.

The couple divorced in 1981.

She met her third husband, a cardiologist – Dr Robert Levine – when he was treating her mother.

The pair tied the knot in 1983.

Mary Tyler Moore’s family struggled with substance abuse.

Mary’s mother was an alcoholic. Her sister was a drug addict who died of a drug overdose.

Mary herself drank to the point she had to go the Betty Ford center for rehabilitation.

Mary Tyler Moore stated in her book After All that she had tried to help her brother, John, commit suicide by giving him drugged ice cream.

Her brother who had cancer survived the suicide attempt but he died of the disease three months later.

Besides her statue in Minneapolis, Moore has been recognized many times over for her contribution to television.